| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 1 December 1893 |
ENGELS TO NATALIE LIEBKNECHT
IN BERLIN
London, 1 December 1893
122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.
Dear Mrs Liebknecht,
Thank you very much for your letter and kind good wishes for my 73rd birthday which I passed in the best of health and spirits. The Avelings and Bernsteins spent the evening with us, and empty bottles bore testimony to our good humour and general sense of well-being. If things go on like this there will, so far as I am concerned, be no reason why I should not repeat my visit to Berlin, 189 in which case we could again take coffee in the Zoological Gardens and comment upon the four-legged and two-legged, winged and wingless, roaring and talking zoological specimens on display, whether in captivity or at large.
Poor Gizycki! He's unable to walk as it is, and now they are also trying to prevent him from talking, and this, because he illicitly consorts with Social Democrats. Prussia is indeed not only a civilised state, but also a state of illuminati!
I am very sorry that your Karl should have acquired fibrositis while on His Majesty's service but let us hope he will soon get over it. At all events the best thing to do, once one finds oneself in those circumstances, is to carry out one's duties properly. I can readily imagine that messieurs les officiers will take care not to compromise themselves in the eyes of your sons,[1] those two sappers being uncomfortably close to the portals of the Reichstag, for they are reluctant to figure personally in the debates there, no matter what the Minister of War[2] may say. And if in addition your sons, as used to be demanded of us volunteers 255 by my erstwhile captain, set 'an example to the company' then, their father notwithstanding, they cannot fail to gain promotion to non-commissioned rank. And that would be only right and proper. If Bebel is the son of an N.C.O., why should not Liebknecht be the father of one or more N.C.O.s? You've no idea how much nicer a uniform looks, with lace on, and, it would seem, that in Berlin the fair sex is far more susceptible to Moloch thus adorned. Nor is that by any means all, for as Heine says:
But still more charming than all else Are Caesar's golden epaulettes[3]
However, we are unlikely to rise to such heights as that. Well, the year of mourning in uniform will soon be over and then Karl will go to Hamm 298 which is also a very nice spot—or used to be; it was my mother's birthplace and I often used to go there as a child, but now everything has changed and it's a smoky, industrial sort of hole, though quite tolerable to live in.
Well, goodbye now, and please give my warm regards to Liebknecht and your children. We shall hold Liebknecht to his promise of coming here after the New Year. Mrs Kautsky also sends you all her warmest regards.
Ever yours,
F. Engels